At an unrelated event for Congresswoman Grace Meng just following State Senator Tony Avella's decision to join the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), both Meng and former comptroller John Liu had harsh criticism for their fellow elected official from northeast Queens and his move.

As did Brooklyn State Senator Martin Dilan, who said that the members of the IDC should be banished from the Democratic Party.

Well, Avella wasn't just going to let them criticize his choice to become the fifth member of the IDC, a kind of rogue group of Democrats that have bucked the rest of their party to work across the aisle with Republicans, lying down.

Or rather, he was going to make sure that the others making a case for the IDC got their opinions heard.

Last week, Avella sent out two recent editorials published by New York City media outlets defending the IDC and its willingness to work with Republicans to get things done in Albany. Maybe Avella wants to make sure that he gets some positive coverage out there for his decision before the next election.

Now that Avella has broken away from the rest of the Democratic Party, so to speak, he has potentially left himself open to a challenge from a party-backed candidate.

We're sure that the Republican Party would love to get back the seat that GOP stalwart Frank Padavan held for nearly three decades, so Avella already faces a potential challenge in the general election that some politicians in more staunchly Democratic districts don't have to worry about, so the last thing he needs is a race in the Democratic Primary to boot.

Of course, given the dysfunction and infighting in the Queens County Republican Party right now, we're not confident that the GOP can mount a real challenge, but that's an issue for another day.

But say what you want about Avella's move to join the IDC, it sure did pay off for him in a big way almost immediately in the form of a host of new committee assignments, if that's your thing. Just days after his announcement, he was appointed to seven new committees, as well as the NYC Education Subcommittee.